Delivery Status Notification (Failure)

[yoja]

I have one user who continually has trouble sending email to one address outside our domain. I can send to it and some of the users emails get through. I have checked how she enters the email - she chooses from her address, so it should not be a typo. I can't find anything wrong. Can anyone give me a hint at what I should look at?

Thanks.

 

[MalcolmS]

Hi Yoja,

Please clarify the current status - are some of the user's messages being delivered or is it messages from some other users.

Sometimes you can't find anything wrong, because there isn't anything wrong. That could be the case here. If this is solidly isolated to one user, then the recipient probably has some sort of filter in place. This would mean, nothing wrong at your end.

Try temporarily assigning an alias to the user (if she's susan@mydomain.com add slastname@mydomain.com and have her send to the problem recipient using the new alias.) If delivery is successful, then you know the recipient is filtering).

Possible filter triggers include text or html links in signatures, or substrings within a name. I heard of one user who experiences blockage because four of the letters in his lastname form a word that appear on most "keyword" list.

Good luck,
M~

 

[yoja]

Hi MalcolmS,

The user says that some of the emails she sends do get through and that other people outside of our organization send with no apparent problem. I have sent a test message a number of times and they all go through. The recipient says she knows of no one else having any problems or of any reason her emails would be filtered.

When you say assign an alias do you mean, create a new entry in the senders address book or change the actual email address that she is sending to?

Thanks for you assistance.

 

[MalcolmS]

Hi Yoja,

"When you say assign an alias do you mean, create a new entry in the senders address book or change the actual email address that she is sending to?"

My suggestion assumes you have administrative rights to user accounts (Active Directory Users and Computers.) If you do, just go to the email tab and add another smtp address. Then ask your user to add this new address to the "From" line in emails to the problem destination.

Now that I understand this is an intermittent issue, I doubt that the alias will change the experience. But, try it. If messages are consistently delivered using the alias, then some sort of filtering mechanism is in place at the receiving end.

Next suggestion, try and remove the destination user from the process. Find out who handles IT for the destination firm and recruit their assistance (assuming this is not a lone-wolf user.) Too often people will state what they believe as if it were fact. I recently had a similar issue with mail being sent to a @pacbell.net address. Some delivered, some not. The distant user stated emphatically that no filtering was enabled on his account. The "@pacbell.net" user happen to visit my client's office for a meeting. I politely introduced myself and asked if he wouldn't mind my taking "a quick look" at his email config. I found the missing emails in the "Bulk Mail" folder. He just gave me the typical user "Oh!".

Other steps - find out the date and time of the next delivery failure and run Message Tracking in Exchange. Also, check your SMTP server logs (if external smtp server is deployed).

Let me know how you make out,
MAS